safe or not?

dazca1

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Can anyone help?
I have never done any online gaming before, so I downloaded game spy, when I try 2 get on a game my firewall keeps blocking.
Is it safe 2 turn it off while playing?
There are many attempts(trojans) from people 2 get in 2 my PC while it is enabled, will they be able 2 if its off?
I love my gaming but this is a worry for me, thats why ive never had an online game.
 
You will have to look at the instructions for your firewall on how to allow port forwarding.

This essentially means that you tell your firewall to allow certain port numbers or ranges (what a game communicates over) to bypass the firewall. This is very safe.

However never turn your firewall off! Even within 10-15mins you can be hit MSBlast viruses etc.

What router/firewall do you have and what games are you trying to play someone may be able to give you instructions :)
 
Seeing this post reminds me, I meant to ask whether having a Wireless router is sufficient to stop viruses etc ?? I have minimal knowledge on firewalls etc?

Matt
 
Originally posted by Malone
Seeing this post reminds me, I meant to ask whether having a Wireless router is sufficient to stop viruses etc ?? I have minimal knowledge on firewalls etc?

Matt

No; however it will stop the virus issues that some people suffered due to the MS exploit that allowed it to connect to your machine without u doing anything.

Viruses usually infect yourmachine because you opened / ran a file that was not what it seemed to be - ie something u downloaded, or an infected email that had an attachment u ran.
Either get yourself a virus scanner - or simply don't open and click everything you get sent in email that you don't 100% trust - that goes for downloading utilities and files off the internet: stick to offical sites and you should be reasonably safe.

There are some viruses currently around that once they have infected a machine, they start trying to connect to other machines on the network and infect them. They do this by connecting to a port on the machine that is running a service that has not been patched. The solution to this is to block that port off / make sure the service is not running or get a patch for that service - ie get the MS security updates.
A router acts like a firewall and will not allow connection to machines behind it on specific ports unless you specifiy they can be accessed.
 
Sorry for being thick, whats a router?
Im using norton firewall
 
usually in the forum of a piece of hardware - it connects ( bridges ) across 2 or more networks and 'routes' the traffic as required across it.
It keeps local traffic on one side and external traffic on the other side - only allowing required traffic across.
It can be set up to send external traffic aimed at your network to specific locations , stop it comming in at all , or selectively allow certain types of traffic.

In most home users cases:

the router makes the connection to the internet and keeps it running.
When a pc in your home wants to make a conection to the internet, the router takes that message and sends it out .. when a response comes back it makes sure it goes back to the pc that made the request.
Externally the servers on the internet can't see your pc at home: the router masks your ip to its own external address.
Its abit like you and your mates asking one freind to order things for you from a catalogue - u send a your order to him and he gets it delivered to himself ... then sends it on to you without the the catologue company knowing your address or that you even exist.
 

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